Narcis Fernandez Fuentes

Bioinformatics and Structural Bioinformatics. Protein design. Structure-based analysis of protein-protein interactions. Databases and bioinformatics tools. SNPs modelling.

Our research interests relate to a number of areas within Bioinformatics. We have a long-standing interest in protein structure prediction and structure-to-function relationship. We work in the study of biomolecular interactions, modeling of protein complexes in genome-wide interactomes, modulation of protein-protein interactions and structure-based protein design. We are also interested in computational design of peptides for the modulation of protein interactions as potential therapeutic agents or diagnostic tools. In the area of Plant Bioinformatics, we are developing bioinformatics-based approaches to complement guide and improve plant-breeding programmes and to understand the underlying biological mechanisms liked to the response to abiotic stresses. We are also interested in the modelling of genetic variation, e.g. SNPs, and the assessment of functional impact at protein level. Finally, we work in close collaboration with experimental labs in a synergistic manner by applying or developing novel tools to address different research questions.

Narcis Fernandez-Fuentes is a Reader in Genomics/Bioinformatics. He received his M.Sc. degree in Biotechnology from the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain, in 2001, and his PhD in Computational Biology from the same university in 2004.

During his PhD he was Marie Curie Training Fellow at the Structural Genomic Group in EMBL-EBI, Hinxton; Cambridge, U.K. where he worked with Prof. Liisa Holm; from Oct. 2002 to Apr. 2003 he worked with Prof. Michael J.E. Sternberg, Imperial College of London, U.K., supported by an EMBO and a FEBS short term fellowships and finally, between Oct. 2003 and Mar. 2004 he was visiting fellow at Dr. Fiser's Lab., Albert Einstein College of Medicine, NY, supported by Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds.

From 2004 to 2007 he was Research Associate at Dr. Andras Fiser Laboratory at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. From 2007 to 2011 he was a Lecturer funded by the RCUK Academic Fellow scheme at the Leeds Institute of Molecular Medicine were he established the Computational Biology Group within the Experimental Therapeutics Section.

In January 2012 he joined Aberystwyth University as Reader in Genomics/Bioinformatics.